Vandersteen 1C - Best Integrated For Vinyl Lovers?

Would it be a bit wiser to perhaps try a new cartridge before trying a new turntable?? Once upon a time I used Grado, but they happen to make an awful hum when used with Rotel...so my local dealer wasn't suggesting much other than Ortofon as a replacement.

It's certainly possible that it's not the Nak's fault. The few things I've read around here suggest that it was/is a quality piece of gear.

My apologies for not giving a bit more details about the setup. It's certainly nothing fancy - the Rotel has an Ortofon cartridge, and it's just a run of the mill Sony SACD player. Speaker wire is typical 12-gauge. Doesn't seem like this gear would make vinyl sound "underpowered", though.

The Nakamichi is supposed to be about 40 wpc. Loudest levels for vinyl for me would be at about 11 o' clock. Trust me, I don't like ear bleeding levels. Room size is about 11' X 15', and I have to put the Vandersteens on the shorter side - they're probably about 8 feet apart.

I do have JM Lab Chorus 725 speakers in another room (which have three 6.5" woofers a piece), so I could try them with the Nakamichi to see if they provide something in the bass department that the Vandersteen's don't when listening to LP's. Although the JM Lab cost roughly twice as much, I just love the phase/time coherence of the Vandersteens, and that's why I want to keep my turntable matched up with them.

Whatever integrated anyone may suggest, I would defintely want it to have the phono stage already built in.